Fossils and Geology of Crail, North Scotland. Fossil Collecting & Geological Guides

Location Information
	There are lots of fossils to see at Crail. Most of the specimens encountered can not be collected but the location is still well worth a visit, with those fossils on show being truly spectacular.
	(Suitable for children) There are some areas at Crail where the going may be tough for younger children, but with supervision older children should be able to manage this location. For younger children there is a nice sandy beach and for older folk there are plenty of tea rooms in the village itself.
	The beach is not far from the village of Crail, but to get to most of the fossiliferous areas, you have to climb over some rocky patches and some fairly large sandstone platforms.
	Foreshore The majority of fossils to be found at Crail are seen on the bedding planes of outcropping sandstone. Loose fossils can also be picked up among the smaller rocks on the beach.
ACCESS RIGHTS	SSSI - it is illegal to remove the in situ material, or hammer the bedrock.

Please follow our national fossil collecting code

! IMPORTANT SAFETY NOTES !

Be careful when climbing over the rock ledges and boulders. There is little chance of becoming cut off by the tide here as the cliffs are generally low and there is a coastal path behind the beach.

V. large fossil tree trunk in life position at Crail

Other Similar Locations

This is an excellent location for plant remains, but you could also try Little Haven, Nelton Haven in wales, Writhlington in Avon or Whitehaven in Cumbria, Offerton in Cheshire, Besom Hill in Lancashire or New Hay Quarry in Lancashire which is very similar or try Jurassic plant remains from Yorkshire, Scalby Ness, Hayburn Wyke, Filey, Cloughton Wyke and Gristhorpe Bay. In Scotland, you can also try Anstruther , East Wemyss, or Crail.

If you like looking for trace fossils, there are lots of locations all over the UK from various time periods. Abereiddy, Barns Ness, Blackgang, Causey Pike, Crail, Elgol, Fishguard, Freshwater East, Newhey, St Monans, Stair Stream, Presipe.

At Crail, look around this area.

Stone Tumblers (Lapidary)

Microscopes

Test Sieves for Particle Analysis

Stone Tumblers are used for tumbling and polishing rough rock, stones and pebbles including those found on the beach and glass.

Whilst collecting fossils, on those days where you come back empty handed, you could collect rocks, stones and glass from the beach and tumble then at home.

These are all high quality machines to give a professional finish to your samples. The tumblers can be used with a variety of grits, most commonly Silicon Carbide Grit and Cerium Oxide. We have a wide range of rough rocks for sale too.

Microfossils are much easier to collect because they are so small that the vast majority of collections only concentrate on large finds. These small finds can simply be found by taking small samples of sands, crags, clays and soft rocks and examining them under a microscope.

We have a wide range of microscopes for sale, both for the study of fossils, but also educational and professional for use in the laboratory. We have Stereo microscopes, Compound Microscopes, Polarising Microscopes and Monocular Microscopes.

We have thousands of Test Sieves for Particle Analysis.

Endecotts Sieves: For accurate dependable results you can't buy a better test sieve than Endecotts. At every stage of manufacture each test sieve is individually inspected.

High Precision Tecan manufactures precision apertures as small as 3 microns for a wide array of applications such as filtering, sieving and nozzles. Its high-performance, ASTM/ISO compliant test sieves satisfy the most demanding fine particle grading requirements.

Fossils and Scottish Fossil Collecting in Crail Midland Valley and Grampian Geological Guide

Fossils and Scottish Fossil Collecting in Crail
Midland Valley and Grampian Geological Guide